CLASS dismissed: ObamaCare cutback.

• Author: Suderman, Peter
• Position: Citings - Community Living Assistance Service and Support - Brief article

OBAMACARE'S advocates bolstered their case by citing a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis that said the health care law would reduce the federal budget deficit during the next decade by more than $130 billion. About $70 billion of that projected deficit reduction came from the Community Living Assistance Service and Support (CLASS) Act, a separate long-term care program that was attached to Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Supporters of CLASS, which collects premiums from beneficiaries who've enrolled in the program through their employer, promised it would be fiscally sustainable without any additional taxpayer assistance. Critics pointed out that the CBO deemed the program a deficit reducer only because it was designed to collect premiums for several years before paying out benefits.

Eventually, even the Obama administration agreed. "We determined pretty quickly that [CLASS] would not meet the requirement that the act be...